


do you want me to read that for you?

by reyxbway



Category: Chaos Walking - Patrick Ness
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Sorry Patrick Ness, Tutoring, bradley's an english teacher now??, english tutor - Freeform, good dad ben, hey if you read the tags this far follow my spotify i have chaos walking playlists, hey look it's got multiple chapters, i don't really know what's going on, i forgot corinne and viola don't really get along so please disregard, it was gonna be slow burn but i decided it wasnt, it's acj1114, probably not what ness intended, slightly less good dad cillian but he's working on it, there's some other background characters, todd is...doing his very best, todd's illiteracy but it's a little bit wacky, viola deserves the world
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24262306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reyxbway/pseuds/reyxbway
Summary: When Todd's English teacher recommends that he get a tutor, the last person he expects to see sitting there is the pretty new girl he spends the period looking at instead of listening to--but there she is, binders spread out around her and a big smile on her face, waving him to the table she's staked out in the library.Oh, boy. This is not going to go well for Todd.
Relationships: Viola Eade/Todd Hewitt
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	1. todd's not stupid--just struggling a little

The bell echoed through the hallways of Prentisstown High, signaling the end of the last class of the day, and Todd Hewitt wanted nothing more than to get out of that godforsaken building. More specifically, to get out of his godforsaken English class. He haphazardly slung his backpack onto his shoulder and had one foot out the door when his plan was thwarted.

“Todd Hewitt?” his teacher, Mr. Tench, said, not looking up from the stack of essays he was covering in red ink. Todd wheeled around on one foot, pretending this meeting was about something other than his decidedly-not-passing grade in the class. “Could you come here for a moment, please?” Todd said nothing, just walked back to the desk. “Grab a chair.” He did.

As he sat down, Todd took a deep breath, schooling his features into something that would elicit sympathy. Then, he said, “Listen, Mr. Tench, I know my grade ain’t great, but you’ve gotta understand, I’m doin’ my best—”

Mr. Tench smiled at him, one of those smiles that let Todd know that his teacher felt a little bit sorry for him. “I know you are, Todd.” He set down the stack of essays he was working on, put the cap back on his pen, and adjusted his glasses. “But the fact remains that you have a sixty in my class. I’ve talked to Dr. Prentiss about your performance, and he thinks you may benefit from a tutor. Is that something you’re open to?”

Todd’s heart dropped into his stomach. A tutor? Ben and Cillian had mentioned getting him one in passing, but he’d always been able to talk them down from it, saying they didn’t have the money to afford one or the time to find one or something like that. But one being recommended by your teacher was a little bit different. He couldn’t really argue with an academic professional who thought he needed help. And he likely wouldn’t graduate on time if he wasn’t able to keep his grades up, and the idea of being stuck in Prentisstown longer than necessary kind of made his head hurt. On the other hand, if anyone found out he was being tutored, he’d never hear the end of it. Davy Prentiss was always looking for a reason to pick a fight with him, and this would give him plenty of new material to use against Todd.

“Todd?” Mr. Tench asked again, bringing him back to reality. “If you don’t want a student tutor, we can set up sessions after school and just meet here to go over things you’re struggling with. It’s up to you.”

Todd nodded, not fully focused on the conversation. “I’ll ask Ben and Cillian about it when I get home. One of them’ll email you, I think.”

Mr. Tench leaned back in his chair. “Alright. Let them know that if they’ve got any further questions, I’m always just a call away. And I’ve got a list of students who I’m sure would be glad to help you out. I’ll send it to Ben.”

“Thank you, Mr. Tench.” Todd got to his feet and picked his backpack up, running out of the room before his teacher could ask him any more questions in that horrible tone that made him feel like a pity project rather than a student.

He slammed the door to Cillian’s truck closed and slumped down in his seat, a frown etched into his face and a venomous gleam in his eyes letting prospective conversation starters they were likely to get a shout rather than a polite greeting. “Where do you think you’ve been?” Cillian demanded, not looking at Todd as he shifted the truck into drive and pulled out of the parking lot. “Sit up straight. It’s safer that way.” Todd glared at his father and straightened his posture, though the frown didn’t go anywhere. “What happened?”

“Mr. Tench thinks I need a tutor,” Todd said, spitting the word “tutor” like a curse. “Cuz my English grade ain’t good enough.”

“Haven’t I been saying that for a couple of months now?” Cillian asked, his tone suggesting that this was old news. “Nice to see the school’s finally realized what Ben and I’ve known all along.”

Todd’s gaze shot toward Cillian. “Huh?” he said, too shocked by his father’s words to form complete sentences. “You _agree_ with Prentiss that I need help?”

“You’re failin’ the class, Todd, and I don’t want any son of mine havin’ to repeat a year of school.” Cillian tried to keep his voice even, but as the sentence continued, it got louder and louder.

Todd straightened even further, his face turning red. “I ain’t stupid! I don’t need nobody’s help!” He flung his arms out. “Not yours, not Mr. Tench’s, and definitely not some effing tutor’s!”

Cillian exhaled slowly through his nose, taking one hand off the wheel to massage his temples. “I never _said_ you were stupid, Todd. Just that you might need a little extra help in this class, that’s all. It’s not a crime to struggle, but it is one to not accept help when you need it,” Cillian said, low and threatening like an animal preparing to pounce. “And watch your mouth.”

Had they not pulled into the yard right then, the argument likely would’ve escalated even further. They clattered down the gravel driveway in utter silence and stalked into the small farmhouse, where Todd found Ben, his other adoptive father, sitting in the living room waiting for him, their dog Manchee flopped over on his back in his lap. Todd threw his backpack down and stormed to his room, wishing more than anything Ben and Cillian hadn’t taken the doors to every room off and sold them when money got tight so he could slam it closed. He settled for throwing himself onto his bed with a low groan that got louder and higher the longer it went on, no matter how his pillow muffled it.

“Rough day?” Ben asked, the mattress sagging as he sat down next to Todd. He nodded. “Need to talk about it?”

Todd shot up, anger surging through his veins. “I ain’t stupid,” he started, the words all tumbling out at once.

“Course you’re not. Someone try to tell you otherwise?”

Todd thought for a minute. Mr. Tench hadn’t ever said he was stupid, and neither had Cillian, even if he’d implied it a little. “No,” he admitted. “But Mr. Tench said I need to get an English tutor, which basically means I’m stupid.”

Ben nodded. “I know. He sent me an email before you got home with a list of students he thinks would be helpful. I think it’s worth a shot, Todd. I know you wanna get out of here for college. Gettin’ your grades up can help you with that. So why don’t we sit down with Cillian and see who these kids are? If you don’t like any of them, we can start thinkin’ about other options, okay?”

Todd hadn’t even answered before Ben stood up and walked out of the room. He came back a couple seconds later with his laptop in one hand and Cillian behind him. Manchee trailed after them, barking like they’d gathered just to show him affection. They sat down on either side of Todd, trapping him between them so even if he tried to run, he wouldn’t get anywhere very fast.

Ben opened his email and clicked on one from Mr. Tench. Attached was a PDF labeled “Potential Tutors—Todd Hewitt,” which Ben clicked. It opened in a new window, a long list of names glaring back at Todd and making his head spin. He gave them a quick scan. Mostly kids he had at least one class with and who he definitely didn’t want to know he needed extra help in any subject. Great.

“What about her?” Cillian said, pointing at a name about halfway down the page. “Steff Taylor. I think I know her parents.”

Todd’s eyes went wide and he shook his head. Anyone but Steff Taylor. She took every opportunity to make sure she was the center of attention, and she’d turn him into some sort of charity case. “Who else is there?” he asked.

“Oh, look at that! Liam Smith’s on here! You used to be friends with him, remember? You’d go out and harass the crows in the fields,” Ben said. “What about him? He was a sweet kid.”

“Uh uh. He’s on the football team now, and then the whole team’ll know my business. Everyone knows Liam can’t keep his mouth closed.” Ben frowned. “Sorry. Who’s next?”

Todd shot down every person on the list with some reason or another until they reached the very end. There was one name left. “Todd, you’ve got to pick someone,” Cillian said with a grimace. “We don’t have time to help you ourselves, so you’d best find somebody to do it for you. Otherwise, we may as well let Mr. Tench do it himself, and I know you don’t want that.” 

Todd huffed. “Who’s the last person?” he asked, resignation tainting his voice.

Ben tilted his head to the side. “Huh. I don’t know this name.”

Hope sparked in Todd’s chest. Maybe he could find someone he didn’t know after all. “Who is it?”

“Some girl named Viola Eade.” Todd’s eyes went wide. He’d never heard that name before in his life. Perfect. Ben turned to Cillian. “Do you know any Eades in Prentisstown? I think they might be new. Oh, we should go introduce ourselves, especially if their daughter’s going to be tutoring our Todd—”

“That’s okay, Ben!” Todd yelped, throwing his hands out in front of him. “Tell Mr. Tench I pick Viola Eade as my tutor.” 

“I’ll email him right now,” Ben said, typing furiously on his keyboard. “Done. You start on Wednesday afternoon in the library.”

A wave of dread washed over Todd. That early? Really? Still, he’d made sure nothing could go wrong. He didn’t know the girl who was tutoring him, and nobody ever came to the library. With any luck, he’d have his grade up and be done with tutoring before the rumors were even thought about.


	2. how not to start a student-tutor relationship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Todd has his first tutoring session with Viola and it's...a bit of a mess, honestly.

Todd kept his head low as he walked toward the massive building at the middle of campus. He tugged the door open, pretending he didn’t push on it for a solid two minutes when he should’ve been pulling. He fought his way through the crowd of students trying to go in the opposite direction, ignoring their shouts about how he was trying to swim upstream and muttering apologies to the kids looking for a fight, sliding past them before they could catch any glimpses of his face.

After a solid five minutes, he pulled open the door to the library with a sigh of relief. Todd scanned the room for an unfamiliar face and found himself looking at… absolutely nobody. The tables were completely empty save for the librarian’s desk in the center of the room. “Cillian’s gonna hate it if I give up this early,” he muttered, walking toward the desk. “Ma’am?” he asked, giving a little wave. The librarian looked at him over the frames of her glasses and raised one eyebrow, setting down the book she was reading. “I’ve got a tutoring session today with someone called Viola Eade. Have you seen her anywhere?”

“Do you _see_ another person here, Mr. Hewitt?” the librarian replied, gesturing at the empty room, exasperation tainting every syllable.

Todd frowned. “No, ma’am.”

“Then no, I haven’t seen her. Go sit down somewhere. She’ll show up eventually.” Todd opened his mouth to say something else, but the librarian had already returned to her book, and he deemed the very effort of trying to speak to her pointless.

He shifted his backpack on his shoulder and sat down at the table farthest from the door, where he could see anybody who came in but they hopefully couldn’t see him. There, he pulled out his copy of _Hamlet,_ opened it to the first scene of the first act, and started trying to read. Immediately, the words muddled together and his mind drifted to thoughts of literally anything other than fifteenth century Danish politics. He flipped the page, hoping the sound would pull him out of his reverie. It didn’t. His eyes fluttered closed, and he didn’t bother to keep them open. He needed rest, anyway, since he didn’t sleep through Mr. Tench’s class that day like he was prone to do.

Todd must’ve dozed off, because when he opened his eyes again, a girl was setting her stuff down across the table from him. One of her eyebrows quirked upward. “Have a good nap?” she asked, a playful note in her voice as she sat down in the chair. “Sorry I’m late—Ms. Coyle saw me in the hallway and she just wouldn’t leave me alone. I promise it won’t happen every time we have a session.” She paused. “I don’t think, at least. You never know with that woman.” He blinked the sleep from his eyes, the blurriness leaving his vision to reveal none other than the pretty blonde girl he spent all his time staring at instead of listening in class.

Oh no.

He sat straight up, smoothing his hair before she could notice how messy it was. “I’m guessin’ you’re Viola?” He opened his book, pretending he’d been paying attention to it. He stuck his hand out.

Her gaze flitted from his hand to his face, then back again. “You must be Todd Hewitt, then.” Right as Todd was about to take his hand back, she grabbed it and shook it, startling him. “I’ve seen you around, I think. We’ve got English together, right?”

He shrugged. “Think so. I don’t pay much attention in that class.”

“Which is why we’re here,” Viola finished. “So, what exactly are you having trouble with?” 

“All of it,” Todd admitted with a bit of shame.

Viola nodded. “Got it. So, I think we’re going to start with the essay due tomorrow, if that’s alright with you. Mr. Tench said your essays leave something to be desired, so how about I take a look at yours for you and provide a few pointers?” she offered, smiling.

“About that.” Todd bit his lip, suddenly interested in the wood grain of the table. He looked up at Viola, head still ducked, with an apology written all over his face.

“You haven’t started it, have you?” she asked, crossing her arms. He shook his head, flashing a guilty smile. Her frown didn’t budge. “You are aware it’s due in less than twenty-four hours, right?” She sighed. “Okay. No big deal. Have you at least thought about what you’re going to write it about?” Another head shake. “Of course you haven’t.” She threw her hands in the air, then ran them through her hair. “How am I supposed to tutor someone who isn’t putting in the effort to even improve in the subject?” She was nearly yelling now, earning her an even louder _shhhh!_ from the librarian.

“Ain’t that what you’re s’posed to figure out?” Todd asked.

Viola scoffed. “I can’t help you if you’re not willing to be helped.” She took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. “Okay. Who are you considering writing it about?”

“What’s the essay about again?”

Viola clenched her jaw so hard Todd thought she was going to crack a tooth. “Do you really not know?” she asked, the words coming out through gritted teeth. Before Todd even confirmed her suspicions, she let out a long breath and glared at him. “Don’t even answer that. You have to write an essay about how minor characters influence the plot of _Hamlet_ despite hardly appearing. Mr. Tench suggested Yorick, but I think everyone’s going to do that, so we may want to pick someone else. Do you have any ideas?”

“I got somethin’ to say,” Todd said, raising his hand like a meek child would on their first day of school.

“Yes?” Viola asked, failing to hide her impatience.

“I ain’t read the play.” Todd didn’t even bother to sound sheepish.

Viola’s whole face went pale. “You _what?_ ” she said, the last word coming out as more of a shriek than anything else, leading to another shushing by the librarian. She shot the librarian a deadly glare that Todd was thankful hadn’t been aimed at him, even if her anger was. She slammed her hands down on the table, then pointed at him as she continued to speak. “You know what? I’m not even surprised by this point. Because of course you haven’t read the play, and of course you don’t want to put in the work to raise your grade, and of course I’m going to have to hold your hand through this entire thing!” Her face was red now, and her features were scrunched up in anger. Todd noted how she looked significantly less pretty when she was mad at him compared to when she was listening calmly to Mr. Tench’s lectures.

Well, he tried to focus on that, at least, thinking it may help him keep his anger in check. It didn’t, and he found himself shouting back at her before he really knew what was going on. “Well, if I had read the play, I wouldn’t need your help, now would I?” At some point during the sentence, he had gotten to his feet, and as he did, his voice rose higher and higher. “It ain’t my fault this class is so effing _boring!_ Why do I even need to do this anyway, huh? I ain’t gonna need Shakespeare when I take over my dads’ farm!” He was pacing now, but his eyes remained fixed on Viola. “And I didn’t want your help in the first place! I told Ben and Cillian I could do this myself, but Mr. Tench had to go and email them, didn’t he! And now I’m stuck here with _you._ ” 

“Fine. Then you can find another tutor.” She folded her arms, leaning back in her chair with indifference all over her face. “See if I care. I’ll just tell Mr. Tench you refused to accept my help.”

Todd hesitated. “Would he tell Ben and Cillian? Or Dr. Prentiss?” Todd’s stomach curdled at the idea of having to face Dr. Prentiss and his disappointed, sympathetic eyebrow raise, usually accompanied by a ‘Now, Todd…” and some comment about how even though he knew things were rough after losing his mother, his behavior was unacceptable.

Viola shrugged. “Probably. But who’s to say?” She leaned forward, resting her head on her hands. “But if you stayed, I wouldn’t breathe a word about this to anyone else. It would all be in the past, and nobody has to know about this little outburst. I just ask that you give this a chance, okay?” Her expression softened, and Todd saw more of the sweet girl from his English class. For a passing second, he even considered her beautiful before remembering that she’d spent the past five minutes yelling at him. “You don’t have to enjoy it, or even pretend like you do. You just have to let me help you. Can you do that?”

Todd huffed and sat back down in the chair across from Viola. “I can try,” he said, resigned.

“Thank you. Now, I’m going to email Mr. Tench and ask him for an extension, since you haven’t read anything.” Viola pulled her laptop out of its case, opened it, and started typing away.

“Viola?” Todd said, treading carefully so as not to anger her.

“Hmm?” she said, not looking up. 

“Can you maybe ask him not to tell Ben and Cillian I’m behind on work? They’ve been doin’ their best to make sure I’m keepin’ up with my schoolwork, and I don’t want to disappoint them,” he said, hints of a blush appearing on his cheeks. “It ain’t their fault they got a screw-up for a son.”

That last sentence drew Viola’s attention away from her computer. “Hey,” she started, her tone softer than he’d ever heard it. “You’re not a screw-up. Everybody struggles sometimes. What matters is that you take the initiative to fix it, and you’ve got the power to fix that. You’re only letting them down if you don’t try to get better, okay? And that’s why I’m here.” She flashed a smile. “So yes, I’ll tell him not to tell Ben and Cillian.”

“Thank you.” And for the first time, Todd sounded truly grateful.

She hit the enter key on her laptop and closed it. “So, what all do you know about _Hamlet_?” she asked as she reached inside her backpack for her copy of the play. She set it on the table, opening it to the first scene.

“I know it’s boring,” he scoffed. Viola shot him a glare, one eyebrow raised. “Sorry.” She nodded and gestured for him to continue. “Uh…I think _The Lion King_ ’s based on it? And somebody says ‘To be or not to be’ or somethin’ like that. Oh, and I think his girlfriend drowns herself.” Viola rolled her eyes. “What? Am I wrong about somethin’?”

“No, you’re right about all of that. Just a little disconcerting to hear Ophelia reduced to just a mention of drowning. But it’s fine, you’re not familiar with the text yet. I’ll get into that a little later. You ready to get started?”

“Don’t really think I have a choice,” Todd muttered.

“We’re not going to do too much today, alright? Just the first scene, and we can pick parts and read it to make it a little less monotonous. You can be Barnardo, and I’ll be Francisco.” She flipped forward a couple of pages. “Then you can be Marcellus, and I’ll be Horatio. I think one of us is going to have to have a conversation with ourselves, but that’s okay.”

Todd thumbed through the pages. “This is long,” he groaned.

Viola sighed. “It’ll be longer if you complain.”

He turned the page again, and his face lit up. “Can I be the ghost?” he asked, his eyes wide and voice almost tremulous with excitement.

She laughed. “Todd, I don’t think the ghost has any lines—”

“I don’t care! Nobody told me there was a ghost in this!” For the first time since their session started, Todd was grinning. “Oh, please, Viola!”

She shook her head, still smiling. “If it gets you to stop complaining, then sure, you can be the ghost.” Todd pumped his fist. “Now, if we want to get done on time, we should probably start reading.” Her eyes flickered down to the page. “You’ve got the first line.”

To both Todd and Viola’s surprise, the next hour flew by, and Todd left with a smile on his face and his ribs trying to ache from laughing so hard at his pitiful attempts to read Shakespeare’s writing. As he climbed into Cillian’s truck, he decided that if all of their sessions were going to be like the second half of that day’s, tutoring wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait! i've been terribly uninspired to write anything other than poetry, but i'm hoping to have the next chapter out a little sooner! anyway, i hope you enjoyed this!


	3. chapter three--a tragic student-teacher conference

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Todd finds out some distressing news.

The next day, Todd found himself once again struggling not to drift off in his English class. Something about Mr. Tench’s rich, smooth voice seemed to act as an artificial melatonin to him, and no matter how hard he tried to listen to that week’s essay prompt, his eyes fluttered closed and his breathing slowed. A five-minute nap wouldn’t ruin his grade, would it? And it wasn’t like he needed to know the essay prompt. As long as Viola was listening, he was home free.

Unfortunately for him, right as he surrendered to sleep, a finger thumped him in the back. He bit back a yelp and his hand shot to the point of impact, massaging it as if that was going to do any good. He whirled around to face the culprit—none other than Viola Eade, sitting there with a smug smile on her face.

“What was that for?” he hissed.

Her smile widened. “To keep you from falling asleep, duh. Improvement starts with actually paying attention in class. Now, get back to focusing.” Todd huffed and glared at her, his eyebrows drawn low over his eyes. She spun her pointer finger around in a circle with a pointed look, and with one last frown, he turned back around.

Just in time for the bell to ring.

“Okay! Your essays are due on Friday, and we’re going to spend tomorrow in class working on them. If you have any questions, just shoot me an email. Have a great day!” Mr. Tench said.

Todd stretched, yawned, and grabbed his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder and bolting toward the door again. Only a few steps later, however, he found himself trying to walk and going absolutely nowhere. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small hand latched around the handle of his backpack. He threw his head back and groaned. “Viola, it’s Thursday!”

She released the handle and planted her hands on her hips. “And?” she said, one eyebrow arching upward. “We may not have a session today, but I think it would be beneficial to meet with Mr. Tench to see how to improve your essays, don’t you?” Her tone suggested that there was only one answer to her question. Todd sighed, wishing there was just one day that he could get out the door of his English class without being stopped by one force or another. He tossed his backpack to the floor.

“I guess,” he said, his head hung low.

“Oh, don’t act like this is the end of the world. It won’t take long, I promise. You’ll be out of here in just a few minutes,” she said, swatting his shoulder. Todd tensed up at her touch. Viola may have been his vaguely infuriating English tutor, but he couldn’t deny that she was one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen—meaning that any physical contact was cause for a momentary shutdown.

They grabbed desks and pulled them toward Mr. Tench’s desk, sitting down in front of him. Mr. Tench set down the stack of papers he was grading, which had gotten bigger since the last time Todd met with him, and looked at them over the rims of his glasses. “Miss Eade. Mr. Hewitt. What brings you here?”

Viola gave Mr. Tench the smile Todd had noticed she reserved for adults and people she wanted something from. “As you recommended, I’ve started tutoring Todd in your class.” Mr. Tench perked up a little bit. “I remember you telling me that his essays are a bit lackluster, and since they make up a large portion of grades in your class, I was just wondering what I could do to help him improve his writing.” Todd frowned, trying not to get offended. He only had to look at his grade to know that his essays were disastrous at best, but did she really have to use the word ‘lackluster?’ 

Mr. Tench turned to Todd. “Well, Mr. Hewitt, I think we should probably start with your spelling.” He plucked one of Todd’s essays from the pile and slid it over to him. Viola’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head as they scanned the page, taking in the sheer amount of red marks. “Most of the time, I can still figure out what you’re trying to say, but I find it a little concerning that you’re misspelling this many words.”

“Sorry,” Todd muttered, not knowing what else to say.

Viola shook her head. “Don’t apologize,” she said, her tone gentle. “We’ll just have to work on it, alright?” She brightened and looked back at Mr. Tench. “What else?”

“Sentence structure,” he said simply. “I’m not sure where you learned how to use commas, but whoever taught you did it wrong.” He opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a thick workbook, dropping it on his desk with a _thud._ He then slid it toward Todd, who took in the title with wide eyes. _Introduction to Grammar: 21 st Edition. _

“There’re twenty-one of these?” he asked, incredulous. He looked at Viola. “We just gotta do one, right?”

She shook her head, trying not to laugh. “Yes, Todd.” She turned her attention back to Mr. Tench. “Thank you for meeting with us,” she said, bringing back her ‘respectful adult’ smile as she got to her feet. She picked the grammar book up off the table and offered it to Todd. “Want to keep this with you, or should I hold onto it so it doesn’t mysteriously go missing before Monday?” She laughed. Todd pushed it back toward her. “Alright, I’ll keep it then.” Viola grabbed her backpack and headed to the door. Just before she stepped outside, she looked back over her shoulder and said, “See you tomorrow, Mr. Tench. Bye, Todd!”

And with that, she was gone.

Todd rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. “I, uh, I should probably go, too,” he said, looking everywhere but Mr. Tench’s eyes. “Cillian’s not gonna be happy if he’s gotta sit in the parking lot for too long.” He picked up his bag. “Bye, Mr. Tench.”

“Not so fast, Mr. Hewitt.” Mr. Tench didn’t look up. “I received Viola’s email asking for extensions. Are you aware you’re at least a month behind the rest of the class on assignments?”

Todd bit back a curse, assuming it wasn’t the most proper classroom behavior. “Yessir,” he replied, deciding that was a bit more appropriate.

“In order to help you catch up, I’ve asked Viola if it’s possible for her to add another tutoring session on Friday afternoons. Would that work for you?”

All the air rushed out of Todd’s lungs. How was he supposed to respond to that? It was bad enough that he had to make the walk of shame to the library twice a week. Adding a third day was nearly too much. But, judging by the look on Mr. Tench’s face, the question was more of a courtesy than anything else, and there was only one acceptable response. “Yessir,” he said again, swallowing back his disdain. Mr. Tench just nodded.

Before his teacher could say anything else, he darted from the room, making a beeline for the parking lot with his head down and wishing he had a hoodie to pull over his head. Luckily for him, Cillian was parked right in front of the door. Todd pulled the door open and climbed into the truck, a frown once again etched into his features.

“Where’ve you—”

Todd held up his hand. “Don’t start.”

Cillian shoved the truck into reverse and whipped it out of the parking spot. “Don’t take that attitude with me, boy.” Todd shot him a glare. Cillian took a low, deep breath. “Need you to help with the fence when we get home. Manchee’s been tryin’ to get out again.”

Todd scowled. “Let him, for all I care. Besides, I got English homework. Gotta do it since you’re makin’ me work with a tutor.”

“You said Viola wasn’t all bad.”

“Yeah, but I don’t wanna have to meet with her three times a week! She nearly took my effing head off yesterday! And now Mr. Tench’s fussin’ about my spelling and my grammar and everything else I’ve ever done in his class, and—” Todd trailed off, choosing instead to just let out a growl of guttural rage and throw his hands in the air.

“Watch. Your. Mouth,” Cillian snarled. “And I don’t care if you’re fussed at by your teacher. The fact is that you’re failin’ the class, Todd, and he’s gotta point out what you’re doin’ wrong so you can fix it.”

Todd slumped down in his seat in place of an answer, and the rest of the ride home passed in silence. When they arrived at the farmhouse, he stormed to his room, ignoring Manchee’s incessant barking and Ben’s attempts to alleviate the tension crackling between him and Cillian, and spent the rest of the night on homework, cursing Mr. Tench’s name all the while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY THIS HAS TAKEN SO LONG. I've been unmotivated to do absolutely anything other than bake and cry. I hope the next chapter will be done sooner, but I'm not making any promises.


	4. Chapter 4

“Spell ‘obligation,’” Viola said, clutching the list of words Mr. Tench had emailed her like her life depended on it and pacing back and forth. Todd’s head slammed against the desk with a thud. She tore her gaze from the list and fixed it on him, freezing him in place. “You could at least try, you know.” Disappointment edged her tone, and Todd’s heart sank a little bit. It wasn’t that he wasn’t trying; just that he kept failing and it caused a little pebble of despair to form in his stomach, poking at him so that he couldn’t focus on anything but his mistakes.

Todd’s head popped up just enough that his eyes were visible. He looked at Viola with all the misery he could muster. “I’m tired of tryin’ and not doin’ it right,” he finally admitted with a sigh. “I ain’t got a word right yet.”

Viola perched one hand on her hip. “That’s not true,” she said, scanning the list. A series of red Xs glared back up at her. She frowned, trying not to show too much defeat. “Okay, so maybe it is true, but you definitely won’t get any right if you give up.” Todd didn’t respond. She nudged him with her elbow, and he snapped to attention. “Come on. Five more words. Then we can move on to something else, okay?”

Todd let out a long, melodramatic sigh. “Fine.”

“Okay. Obligation. Go.”

Todd’s brow creased, and he bit the corner of his mouth. “O-b-l-i-g-a-s-h-u-n,” he said, growing more tentative as he continued. Once he finished, he dared to look at Viola…who was grimacing, a sorrowful expression painted on her face. She uncapped her pen and drew a neat, tiny red X next to the word, looking at Todd and quickly shaking her head. “What is it, then?” he asked, folding his arms and slumping down in his chair. It was all he could do not to bang his head against the table again.

“Hey, you were really close!” she said, forcing a smile that even a blind man could’ve seen through. “It’s ‘t-i-o-n’ at the end, not ‘s-h-u-n.’ But you got the rest of it right.” Her eyes flicked back down to the list. “How about ‘cemetery?’” Todd huffed. “We’ve done this one already. Maybe you’ll remember it.”

“Doubt it.” Viola shot him a look that suggested he should keep his doubts to himself. He thought for a minute. “It don’t start the way I think it does, right?” Viola nodded, her smile reappearing and becoming a touch more genuine. “Okay. I got this.” He took a deep breath. “C-e-m-a-t-a-r-y.” The smile melted off Viola’s face. Todd groaned, giving in to temptation and slamming his head against the table again. “What’d I do wrong this time?”

“There’s no ‘a’ in cemetery. Anywhere.”

“Then why does it sound like there is?”

“Because the English language is stupid. But hey, now you’re sure to get it right next time.” She gave him another nudge. This time, he didn’t perk up. “Come on. Just three more words. You’ve got this. Here, I’ll give you an easier one.” She flipped to another page. “There. ‘Creature.’ And I’ll give you a hint—there’s no ‘ch.’”

“C-r-e-a-t-u-r-e.” Todd didn’t bother lifting his head, so he didn’t see Viola’s face light up with the brightest grin she could muster—though she didn’t speak. His heart sank, taking her silence for disappointment. “I got it wrong, didn’t I?”

“No!” Viola cried, earning her a shush from the librarian. She didn’t glare at the older woman as she said, “Todd, you got it right!”

Todd sat bolt upright. “I did?” One look at Viola, who looked nearly about to burst with excitement, told him all he needed to know. “I did!” He couldn’t hide the enthusiasm in his voice. He watched as she uncapped her pen again, drawing a neat line across the word. “You think maybe we can do somethin’ else now?”

Viola laughed. “Not so fast. What would Mr. Tench say if he knew we quit after one correct word?”

“He’d be shocked I even got one right. He thinks I’m stupid. So does Dr. Prentiss.” He scuffed his feet against the floor.

“Neither of them think you’re stupid. And in the event they did, don’t you want to prove them wrong?” Todd shrugged, though deep in his heart, the thought of wiping the smug smile of the principal’s face brought him a kind of feral satisfaction. “And think of how proud Ben and Cillian are going to be when they see how much better you’re doing.” She was right about that one, he had to admit. The idea of making Ben and Cillian proud filled him up with a warmth he didn’t know how to explain. “And they’ll be even prouder when you tell them that you got _three_ words right today. So, spell ‘though.’”

Todd froze. He knew there were more letters after the ‘o’—Viola had made sure of that the first time he attempted it—but he couldn’t remember what they were. He closed his eyes, trying to picture the word in his mind, but everything but the first three letters was a blur. “I—I can’t.” He slumped over in his chair. “I’m sorry.”

Sympathy washed over Viola’s features. “Don’t apologize. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. You want to know a secret to help you spell this?” Todd met her eyes, a silent plea for her help filling them. “You’re a little disgusted by having to spell this word, right?” One of his eyebrows went up of its own volition. “Bear with me. I’m going somewhere with this. You’re disgusted, yes or no?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“What’s a sound you make when you’re disgusted?”

“Ew?”

She thought for a minute, then shrugged and tilted her head a little to the side. “Okay, fair. Well, when I think something is disgusting, I say ‘ugh.’ How would you spell ugh?”

“U-g—Viola, I don’t really get the point of this. How’s thinkin’ something’s gross gonna help me figure out how to spell?”

“Just spell it.” She rubbed her hand over her forehead in exasperation.

“U-g-h.”

“Now, attach that to what you already know of ‘though.”

“T-h-o-u-g-h?” The skepticism in Todd’s voice grew more evident as the word went on.

Viola lit up again. “Exactly! So anything you need to spell ‘though,’ think about ‘ugh!’”

Todd laughed. “Who taught you that?” he asked. “’Cause they deserve an award.”

“Would you believe me if I said I was making that up as I went?” He nodded. “Because I definitely was. I had to check like three different times to make sure ‘though’ actually had ‘u-g-h’ in it.” She clapped her hands together. “Okay. One more. You’ve got this. Spell ‘recognize.’”

Todd let out a guttural groan. “R-e-c-k-o-n-i-z-e,” he said, throwing his hands in the air.

“Better than the first time. It’s r-e-c-o-g-n-i-z-e.” Todd looked like he was about to start beating himself up, so Viola walked over to where he was sitting, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He tensed, hoping she would just chalk it up to shock that she was touching him and not anything else. “Hey. That’s a hard one. I should’ve taken it a little easier on you. That’s on me.” She set the list of words down. “And with that, we’re done with spelling for today.”

“Thank God.”

A grammar book thudded onto the table in front of Todd. A yellow flag poked out of the side. “We’re going to work up to that flag today, alright?” He shot her a mournful look. “Oh, don’t be like that. It’s only like, three pages.” She pulled out the chair next to him and sat down, leaning closer so she could see the book as well. “Okay. Lesson one. Run on sentences. Mr. Tench told me you have a lot of trouble with those.” Viola pointed at the first sentence on the page. “Can you tell me if that’s a run-on or normal sentence?”

Todd scrunched up his face, moving his mouth silently as he took in the sentence. ‘I made food Lila ate it.’ Something looked wrong, but he wasn’t quite sure what it was. “Run-on?” he said tentatively.

Viola smiled. “Yep! Now, can you tell me how to fix it?” He shook his head. She tapped the paragraph at the top of the page. “The answers are all in here. Pick any one of those.”

He read the paragraph, paying special attention to the bullet points labeled ‘How to Fix Run-On Sentences.’ He picked one. “Could I put a period in between ‘food’ and ‘Lila?’”

Viola’s grin grew even wider. “You could!” She closed the book. “Change of plans. I wasn’t expecting you to catch onto that so quickly.” She reached for her backpack, rifling through it.

Todd cocked his head. “What’s that s’posed to mean?” He tried (and failed) to keep the frustration out of his tone.

“Hm?”

“That you didn’t think I’d catch on quickly.” His voice took an accusatory turn, and he folded his arms across his chest. 

“Oh.” She sat back up, setting a thick blue folder on the table in front of her. “It’s just that I’ve read some of your essays, and they’re full of run-ons, so I figured you may have trouble recognizing them.” She opened the folder and pulled out several pieces of paper stapled together. “But you proved me wrong, and I’m impressed.” Viola looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “I don’t think you’re stupid, if that’s what you’re implying.” Her tone remained level, and if Todd hadn’t known her he would’ve thought she was dismissing him.

“Sure feels like it,” Todd muttered.

“We’re not having this conversation again. I don’t think you’re stupid. Nobody here does. Now,” she said, pushing the paper toward him, “I’ve got your introductory essay from the beginning of the year right here. I want you to find and correct at least three run-on sentences.”

Todd huffed, but scanned the page. “There’s one,” he said, pointing at a sentence that lasted about five lines of notebook paper. He recoiled. “A long one, too.”

Viola laughed as she took in the sentence. Her eyes bugged out. “Mr. Tench wasn’t kidding when he said you liked commas a lot, huh?” Todd shook his head. “Okay. No big deal. We can fix it. Where’s the first place you can put a period?”

“Right there,” Todd said, pointing to the little bit of blank paper in between ‘dog’ and ‘that.’ He looked at Viola, searching for validation. “Right?” She gave him a reassuring nod. “And then I can put another one between ‘town’ and ‘but,’ can’t I?” Another nod, this time accompanied by a tiny smile. “Hey, I ain’t half bad at this.” Todd grinned.

“See what you can do when you actually try?”

Todd gave her a half-playful glare. “I was tryin’ when I wrote this. Maybe not tryin’ hard, but still tryin’.”

“And now you’re ‘tryin’’ to fix it,” she teased, mimicking his accent a little bit.

“That don’t sound like me,” Todd said, crossing his arms and hating how it really did sound more like him than he’d ever like to admit. “Where’d you get so good at that, anyway?”

She shrugged. “Mom used to use different voices for everyone when she’d play with me. Guess I just picked up on it. It’s no big deal, really. I bet you could do it. Try my voice.”

Todd grimaced, moving his mouth in a funny way as he tried to wrap his voice around the words. Viola snorted, failing to stifle her laughter. He looked at her, and she bit her lip, a silent apology falling just short of sincere. “Hello,” he said, the words sounding stilted and painful. “M-My name’s Todd. What’s yours?” He shaped the words so the vowels were longer and felt more formal. He shook his head. “I hate that.”

Viola cringed. “I do too. Maybe stick with your voice for now.” She looked back to the piece of paper in front of them. “And stick with trying to fix your writing. That, at least, can be changed.”

Todd rolled his eyes, but grabbed his pencil and looked back at his paper. They continued editing his essay for the rest of their session, finding more than three run-on sentences, and when it came time to leave, both of them found themselves wishing for more time.

“Hey, Todd?” Viola said as she put all her folders back in her bag.

“Hm?”

“Do you think it might be easier to communicate and schedule things if we had each other’s numbers instead of having to send messages through Mr. Tench all the time?” she asked, scuffing her feet against the floor. “It’s okay if you don’t think so, I can just let him know if we have to reschedule anything or—”

Todd lit up. “Yeah!” he said, fumbling for his phone in his bag and nearly dropping it. “That would be great,” he said, his heart racing. He told his brain to shut up, deciding it was stupid to be so flustered by her asking for his number when she was just his English tutor, nothing more. It didn’t listen, and the butterflies in his stomach kept fluttering as she handed him her phone on an empty contact profile. He gave her his, watching as her features contorted into determination as she scrolled. He looked back down at the screen of Viola’s phone, wondering if he should’ve added more detail than just his name and phone number. Right as he was about to add something, however, she handed him his phone back. Next to her name twinkled three little stars.

“Took me ages to find that emoji,” she said by way of an explanation. Todd nodded. “You can get rid of them if you’d like. I just use them to set myself apart from any other Viola someone might have in their phone.”

Todd smiled. “I like them. Kinda feel like I should’ve added somethin’ to mine, though.”

“It’s all good.” Her eyes flickered up to the clock and widened. “I should probably get going. My parents don’t like for me to be driving after dark.” She flashed a smile at Todd. “I’ll see you next week, okay?”

“See you next week.”

With that, they went their separate ways.


	5. chapter five--in which todd meets viola's friends and it goes about as well as you'd expect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title says it all.

“So, let me get this straight,” Corinne said, looking at Viola out of the corner of her eye as they walked toward the row of lockers nestled in the English hall. “You want to invite _Todd Hewitt_ to sit with us at lunch?” She didn’t bother to keep the disdain out of her voice, so Viola didn’t bother keeping the disdain out of the look she shot her friend after she spoke

“Pretty much, yeah,” Viola said nonchalantly. Corinne raised one eyebrow. “What? He’s not as bad as anyone thinks he is. He just has a hard time sometimes is all, and I think having some friends might help with that.”

“He fought Davy Prentiss!” Corinne yelped as she yanked her locker open. Viola shrugged. “In front of his father! It’s a wonder he hasn’t been expelled yet.”

Viola rolled her eyes, trying to keep her patience. “That was one time, and Dr. Prentiss wasn’t even the principal yet. Besides, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t fight Davy if you got the chance. He probably deserved it.” Corinne huffed, letting Viola know that she conceded to her point. “I promise, this is just for today. If you don’t like him, then he doesn’t have to sit with us anymore. Okay?” 

Corinne’s locker slammed closed, the sound resonating through the hallway. “Okay. Fine.” She shifted the handful of books she’d just retrieved, not bothering to put them in her bag. “But if he says one thing about me, you, or Maddy, we’re getting rid of him. Or if he proves to be a bad influence on any of us.” Viola held her hands up in surrender, and Corinne turned on her heel, storming off with her dark curls swinging behind her. “Come on,” she called. “Maddy’s going to be upset if we leave her alone at lunch for too long.”

Viola bounded after her, her thumbs flying across the screen of her phone as she searched for Todd’s contact in her phone. She typed a quick message, thinking on its contents for far longer than she ever thought she would. _Hey!!_ No, too excited. _Heya!_ Still a bit overly enthusiastic. She bit her lip, frustration brewing in her expression as she deleted her message again. _hey todd!_ Okay, maybe that wouldn’t be awful. Now she just had to figure out how to invite him to join her for lunch without it sounding like he was her pity project or something. _do you want to sit with my friends and me at lunch?_ Before she could think too hard about it, she hit the little blue ‘send’ arrow. Unfortunately for her, she started typing before Todd could even read the message, hoping Todd wasn’t the kind of guy who frowned on double texting. _it’s 100% ok if you don’t want to, but if you do we’ll be in the green space between the band room and the auditorium :)_

She shut her phone off, not letting herself worry about it anymore, though she desperately wanted an answer. If Todd wanted to join them, he could, and if he didn’t, she’d get over it. Corinne glanced at her. “Finally get the message right?” she asked, the question more of a conversation starter than something she actually wanted the answer to.

Viola fought down the pink threatening to creep onto her face as she answered, “Yeah. I think so, at least.”

“Know if he’s coming?” Viola shook her head. Had she not been clutching a load of books, Corinne would’ve crossed her arms. “So we _might_ be joined by the weird loner kid at lunch? I’d like to know, since I’ll probably have to watch what I say around him.”

Viola shot her a glare. “Would you at least give him a chance?” she asked, exasperation burning in her tone as she whirled on Corinne. The other girl took a step back, eyes wide. “Have you ever thought that maybe you might _like_ him if you got to know him? You’ve never even spoken to him, have you?” Corinne’s eyes went wide. She shook her head. “I didn’t think so. But Todd and I are friends, and I’d really appreciate it if you wouldn’t judge him before you even meet him. He might surprise you. And like I said, if you don’t like him, he doesn’t have to sit with us anymore. Oh—and you shouldn’t have to watch what you say. Todd’s not like that.” With that, Viola stormed up the rest of the hill to the little green area between the band room and the auditorium.

“Vi!” a familiar voice squealed as a pair of arms wrapped around Viola. She patted them, a soft smile replacing her anger. 

“Hey, Maddy,” Viola said quietly, breaking free of the other girl’s embrace and sitting down on one of the two benches in the area, shrugging off her backpack. It hit the ground with a satisfying _thud._ Maddy sprinted toward Corinne, throwing her arms around her and squeezing her tightly, a bright grin on her face. For once, Corinne smiled back, which just made Maddy grin even wider. Arm still wrapped around Corinne, Maddy guided her to the other bench and they sat down.

Maddy clapped her hands together. “So, how’s everyone’s day been?” 

Corinne took a long sip of water, the ice clinking against her metal bottle. When she set it back down, she said, “Viola’s got something to share,” in an unsettlingly polite tone. Viola’s eyes went wide. Corinne shrugged. “What? May as well say it before he gets here—if he’s coming at all.”

“ _He_?” Maddy leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and her face on her fists. She wiggled one eyebrow. “Has our Vi finally got herself a boyfriend?” She drew out the last word of the phrase, winking melodramatically.

“You wish,” Viola laughed. She pretended her mind didn’t run away with the idea that Todd was her boyfriend, conjuring images of the two of them laughing together or curled up on the couch in her basement watching a movie. She chased them away with a reminder that she’d hardly known him for two weeks, and she didn’t know anything about him other than he was bad at English and doing funny voices and couldn’t spell worth anything at all and he was definitely not stupid, no matter how he thought people perceived him. “But you know how I’ve been tutoring Todd Hewitt?”

Maddy lit up. “You think he’s cute?” She fell over onto Corinne, letting her arms dangle beside her, only straightening up when she realized water was spilling from her capless bottle. “Because I do. There’s something about his quiet, brooding air…” She trailed off, sighing. Corinne looked at her, then over at Viola, as if to say _can you believe this_?.

Disbelief flickered over Viola’s face. Todd, quiet and brooding? The same boy who got excited when he found out there was a ghost in _Hamlet_ and couldn’t figure out how to speak in any other way than his slow, country drawl? She got the impression she and Maddy knew very different Todd Hewitts. Still, she said, “Not exactly. I’ve invited him to lunch with us today, if that’s okay with you. I don’t know if he’s coming, but I just wanted to let you know so you don’t freak out if he shows up.”

Maddy took a bite of her sandwich. “Got it,” she said, her words muddled by a mouthful of peanut butter. She swallowed, then added, “Anything we need to know?”

She thought for a second, running through each of their previous interactions. “Don’t imply that he’s stupid,” Viola decided. “And probably steer clear of any mention of Davy Prentiss.” Maddy nodded sagely, taking in every word her friend said.

“Thought I wasn’t going to have to watch what I said,” Corinne said, a slight edge to her words.

“Oh, it’s not like we talk about Davy Prentiss routinely anyway,” Maddy said, playfully swatting Corinne. “Why would anyone want to? All he does is play football and bully the ninth graders.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’d be okay if I never had to interact with him again.”

Viola’s phone buzzed, and she found herself lunging for it before she could stop herself, not caring how Maddy was going to tease her for the next week for being so eager to hear from Todd. She took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for a rejection, and read his message. _Be right there._ Three little words that sent her heart lunging into her throat, competing with her breath to see what could take up the most space. She sent a quick _yay!_ and shut her phone off, shoving it deep in her backpack where she couldn’t hear it buzz.

“Was that him?” Corinne asked curtly, looking at her freshly polished nails rather than at Viola. 

“Yeah. He’ll be here in a few minutes, I think.”

As if on cue, a familiar shape appeared in the distance, head ducked and shoulders slumped. Viola tightened her low ponytail, winding a strand of it around her finger and letting it spring back into place. Her gaze darted back to Todd before she could stop it, noting how he was getting closer and closer. Figuring she probably needed to act natural, she shoved a piece of grilled chicken into her mouth, hoping she’d be done chewing by the time Todd got there.

She wasn’t. Todd stood right in front of her, waiting for an invitation to sit down or an introduction or _something_ and all Viola found herself able to do was wave. Still, she scooted over a little and patted the place next to her on the bench, and that seemed to be enough. He flopped down ungracefully, his backpack crashing to the ground.

“Todd, this is Maddy and Corinne. Girls, this is Todd,” Viola said, gesturing at each of them in turn. Maddy waved, a bright smile on her face. Corinne dipped her head, acknowledging but not greeting Todd.

“Pleasure to meet you,” Todd said. “Viola’s mentioned you a couple times, so it’s real nice to finally get to know you for real.”

“It’s great to meet you too!” Maddy blurted, her voice cheerful to the point that someone who didn’t know here would think she was being insincere. “Viola’s talked about you a lot too—not a weird amount or anything, but enough that I wanted to meet you.”

A blush crept up Viola’s cheeks as Todd turned to her. “You talk about me?” he asked, his voice soft as if shocked someone was acknowledging him. Viola nodded, not meeting his eyes as she sipped on her lemonade. He looked back at Maddy and Corinne. “Good things?” he asked, the question not aimed at anyone in particular. His voice stayed soft.

“Nothing too personal, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Viola said, remembering how Todd had asked her not to tell his fathers how much he was struggling in class and how deeply he feared being perceived as stupid. She figured that wasn’t something that needed to be shared, not even with her two closest friends. Todd let out a breath, the tension visibly leaving his body.

“So, tell us about yourself, Todd!” Maddy said, leaning forward. “We may as well get to know each other, since you might be sitting with us for a while.”

Todd scratched the back of his neck. “There ain’t much to tell,” he admitted. “I live on a farm with Ben and Cillian just outside of town. We’ve got a dog named Manchee, but he’s not good for too much other than bein’ a little annoying. I ain’t too good at English, which is why I’ve got Viola helping me. I think that’s mostly it.”

“Hey, you’re getting better!” Viola said, forcing cheer into her voice to hide the rising fear that her friends wouldn’t get along with Todd.

Corinne leaned back against the back of the bench, crossing her ankles and folding her arms. She took a long drink of water and set her bottle down next to her, relishing in how it clanged against the wrought iron bench. Viola’s breath hitched. She knew that move. She’d pulled it right before she exposed Steff Taylor for cheating on Ms. Watkins’s science exam. “So,” Corinne said, “I hear you challenged Davy Prentiss to a fight a couple months back.”

“Cori,” Maddy murmured, resting her hand on the other girl’s arm. “Remember what Vi said.”

Todd’s posture went rigid and his head tilted up ever-so-slightly. “Yeah. I did. And I won, too.” He looked at Viola, who quickly drew her fingers over her throat. “But that don’t matter too much. It was a while ago, and I think we’ve worked past it. Mostly.” He cleared his throat, looking around awkwardly, waiting for someone to say something.

Unfortunately, that someone was Corinne. “I think it does matter,” she said. “Why’d you fight him?” She feigned curiosity. Viola shot her a glare. “What? Like Maddy said, we may as well get to know each other.”

“This isn’t getting to know someone,” Viola said. “This is deliberate antagonization.” Todd flinched a little at her usage of words he didn’t quite understand.

Corinne scoffed. “It wouldn’t matter if you hadn’t invited the weird loner kid to sit with us out of pity,” she said. 

Todd bristled, but his eyes were full of hurt as he turned to Viola. “Pity?” he spat, the word a curse on his lips. “Is that why I’m here? Because you felt bad for me?” He tried to mask how his voice threatened to break, filling the cracks in it with all the rage he could muster.

“Todd, you know I’ve never once felt bad for you,” Viola said, as gently as she could. “I’ve just noticed how you don’t seem to hang out with anyone, and I thought—I thought maybe you could hang out with us.” She looked over at Corinne. “I thought we’d be a safe place for you to go where nobody would judge you by your actions. I guess I was wrong.”

“I ain’t your effing pity project, not yours or nobody else’s.” His hands were shaking with anger, and his voice rose with every word he said as he got to his feet. “I’m perfectly happy the way I am, and I don’t need nobody’s help makin’ friends or whatever this was!” He was shouting now, and it took all Viola’s willpower not to flinch at his voice. The few other people in the area turned to look at them, instantly turning away when they noticed who was yelling.

“I _never_ once said that, did I?” Viola asked, failing to keep her voice level as she jumped to her feet.

“You sure implied it!” With that, Todd turned and stomped away, grabbing his backpack and slinging it over his shoulder.

“Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I _care_ about you and want to get to know you outside of three hours a week talking about a five hundred year old play?” Viola shouted after him. Todd froze in place for a moment but shook his head and kept walking as if he’d never heard her. “I guess it doesn’t matter.” Bitterness tainted her tone as she sank back onto the bench, glaring at Corinne with all the venom she hadn’t spent shouting at Todd. “Are you happy now?” she demanded. Corinne nodded, a self-satisfied smile on her face.

With that, Maddy’s grip on Corinne’s arm tightened. “Cori, I say this with all the love in my heart—could you _please_ leave? Just for a moment or two. I need to talk with Viola.” Corinne scowled, but got to her feet and stalked off to a corner, taking her lunch with her. Once she was out of earshot, Maddy looked at Viola. “Go after him,” she said, her tone more serious than Viola had ever heard it.

She shook her head. “He won’t want to talk to me,” Viola said. “Not after what just happened.” _Besides, I can hardly face him now, after he basically said he doesn’t care about me,_ she added, though she’d never say that in front of Maddy in fear of being ridiculed for a crush she wasn’t convinced she had.

“Did you see the way he stopped for a moment?” Maddy asked. Viola considered this. He’d definitely heard her. Maybe he just didn’t know what to say, which was certainly a possibility, considering his noted difficulty with putting his thoughts to paper. “He cares about you, Vi. He just doesn’t know how to say it.”

Viola bit her lip. “Are you sure?”

“Certain.” Maddy nudged her. “I bet you could catch up with him if you went fast enough. He headed back toward the high school building.” Viola moved to grab her stuff. “Don’t worry about that. It’ll just slow you down. I’ll put it in your next class.”

Viola tilted her head, clutching her hands over her chest. “You’re the best, Maddy.”

“Don’t thank me, just go!” Maddy said.

And with that, Viola broke into a run, not caring who saw her as she chased after Todd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so maybe it took ages for me to update, but at least I did it. And at least it's a long chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this, and I'll do my best to get my next chapter out before I leave for vacation!


	6. chapter six--in which viola (finally) catches up with todd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the chapter title says, Viola catches up with Todd and they have a bit of a heart to heart.

It took Viola longer than she would ever admit to find Todd. He was faster than he looked, and apparently pretty good at hiding when he wanted to be. By the time she caught a glimpse of his familiar messy brown hair and muscular build, beads of sweat were appearing on her face and she found herself reaching for her water bottle, only to be disappointed when she realized she left it with the rest of her things with Maddy. “Todd!” she called, waving to him and wiping her brow with the back of her hand and adjusting her hair. He turned away from her, hunching his shoulders and moving to get up. “Todd, please.” Her voice nearly broke in the middle of the phrase, and he froze in place. He looked over his shoulder at her, meeting her eyes for just a second. “I just want to talk to you. You don’t have to say anything. Just hear me out, okay? Will you at least do that for me?”

He angled himself toward her ever so slightly and nodded. She sat down next to him, keeping her distance as best she could on a small bench. She knew him well enough to know that if he wanted to, he’d move closer. “I know I’m probably the last person you want to see right now, and I know that if I was in your position, I wouldn’t want to see me either. I really appreciate you letting me talk to you.” She took a deep breath, calculating what to say next so she didn’t make him more upset than he already was. “I’m sorry for how Corinne acted. I should’ve known she was up to something when she—”

“Ain’t your fault,” Todd mumbled, scuffing his feet against the pavement.

“That doesn’t mean I’m not sorry.” Viola’s voice left no room for questions to be asked. “And I know that probably doesn’t mean anything coming from me, but I don’t know that Corinne regrets a bit of what she did, so my apology is going to have to be enough for you for now.”

“It’s my own fault for fightin’ back.” Todd buried his face in his hands. “Shouldn’t have argued with her when she said somethin’ about pity, don’t matter if you pitied me or not because at least you were nice to me and now I’ve gone and effed that up too. Guess I should tell Mr. Tench I need to find myself a new tutor, huh?”

Viola longed to take his hand, reassure him, and let him know that no matter how angry he got, she’d always want to help him, but she decided that was probably a violation of personal space and far too personal a sentiment for a bench outside a dinky high school building and settled for giving him a quick pat on the shoulder. “You had every right to defend yourself, Todd,” she said, soft and serious and sincere all at once. He turned his head so he was looking at her out of one eye, and only then did she see that his eyes were ringed with red. “Corinne shouldn’t have spoken to you the way she did.” She gave him a soft smile. “And you haven’t messed anything up. All you did was fight back against someone who was upsetting you, and as far as I know, that’s no crime. Not to me, at least.”

“She’s gonna tell everyone and it’s gonna be just like when I fought Davy. They’re all gonna look at me like I’ve done something wrong again and whisper about me when I walk by,” Todd said. “And Dr. Prentiss is gonna have to talk to me again and he’s gonna tell Ben and Cillian and then I’m gonna have their pity too and I don’t want that. For all I know they’re gonna kick me out and call me a menace.”

“Corinne isn’t like that,” Viola said with a shake of her head. “She’s not interested in ruining your reputation. And they won’t get rid of you. I’ll make sure of that.”

“Then what was all that about?”

Viola considered the best way to phrase what she was going to say next for a moment so as not to upset Todd. “She seems to have judged you before she met you,” she said, hoping that wouldn’t be too harsh. He didn’t react other than letting out a long sigh, so she continued. “So, when I told her you were going to sit with us today, she wasn’t all that happy. I told her that if you did something that upset her or Maddy, you didn’t have to sit with us anymore. You can see where this is going. I should’ve known she was going to do something, but I was just so excited to get to talk to you outside of our tutoring sessions that I didn’t notice she was scheming. I’m really sorry. This whole mess is my fault, and I get it if you blame me for it.”

Todd didn’t even listen to the last part of her apology, or if he did, he didn’t acknowledge it. “You were excited to talk to me?” he asked, the words hanging in the sticky early autumn air. 

Viola bit her lip. On the one hand, if she admitted that she was drawn to him and he didn’t feel the same way about her, even in a friendly sort of way, the whole situation would turn awkward, and she’d be stuck tutoring someone who didn’t see her as anything more than someone who could help him get his English grade up. On the other, if she didn’t, she’d never know if he wanted to be closer to her than he was, and they could be stuck in this strange in between stage for the rest of their school careers. “Yeah,” she said after a slightly longer pause than intended. Todd didn’t answer for a second, so she added, “In case you didn’t notice, I don’t have too many friends, so any opportunity to find a new one is greatly appreciated.” She gestured lamely as she spoke, trying to mask her insecurities with forced smiles.

“Oh,” Todd said, shoving his hands in his pockets as best he could while sitting down. “Thanks.” They sat in silence for a moment before he said, “Did you mean what you said earlier?” He tiptoed around the words, growing quieter the longer he talked.

“Which part?” Viola asked, though she had a feeling she knew exactly what he meant.

“When you said you cared about me.” His voice went more serious than Viola had heard for a while. Her best guess was that Todd hadn’t had anyone outside of his family really tell him they cared about him, and for someone he hadn’t known for very long to say something like that would rock his world.

Viola swallowed, trying to buy time while she figured out the best way to respond. Finally, she decided the truth was probably the best move. “Yeah,” she said. She wiped her hands on her shorts, hoping they’d stop sweating. They didn’t. “Yeah, I did.”

A little smile appeared on Todd’s face, as did a tiny sprinkling of pink on his cheeks. “That’s nice,” he said. His gaze darted to Viola for a second, then back toward the ground. “I—I care about you too, you know.”

She couldn’t keep the shock out of her voice as she said, “Really?” Todd gave a tiny nod. Her heart swelled up in her chest, and it was all she could not to grin like an idiot. “Thank you.”

“You’re the first person in the whole town not to look at me like there’s somethin’ wrong with me,” he said, still stone-faced. “I dunno if there’s a way for me to thank you enough for that. I don’t deserve a friend like you.”

“Everyone is worthy of friendship,” Viola said. “Everyone deserves to know somebody cares about them. And I’m glad I’m that person for you.” She hesitated before adding, “You know, if you ever need somebody to sit with at lunch, I’m always here.” She didn’t quite know why she said it, but saying it felt like a weight lifted off her chest.

“Really?” Todd said, disbelief in his voice. “You still want me to come to lunch with you even though I had that big fight with Corinne?”

“I never said Corinne was going to be there.” One of Todd’s eyebrows shot up, and she could sense a question brewing that she didn’t quite know the answer to, so she continued, “Maddy and Corinne won’t miss me too badly. They’ve always been closer to each other than they are to me, and it’ll be nice for me to get a change of scenery. We’ve been sitting in the same place since school started. Plus I see them in nearly all my classes. They can live without me for thirty minutes.”

“So it’d be just the two of us?”

Viola shrugged. “If you wanted it to be. I could always invite Maddy and Corinne if that would make you feel better, but—”

“That sounds great,” he said, a grin spreading across his face. “As long as I don’t have to talk about English.”

She laughed. “No, I think we do that enough.”

Right before Todd responded, the bell sounded, ringing through the brick hallway where they sat like a thunderclap and startling both of them, causing them both to keel over with laughter. Once they’d regained their bearings, Viola said, “I, uh, I guess I should get to class.”

“Yeah. Me too.” Todd grabbed his backpack and adjusted the straps on his shoulders, bouncing on the balls of his feet as his gaze darted to the clock and back. “It takes me a long time to get to my next class, and I think Ms. Watkins is gonna give me detention if I’m late again, and I really don’t want that.”

“You’d better get going, then,” Viola said, reaching for her stuff before remembering it was with Maddy. She stretched instead, trying to make her mistake seem intentional. “See you tomorrow?”

“See you tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I'm not even going to apologize for taking ages to update or really promise to do better, because I'm quite tired of breaking promises. I was on vacation, and I definitely didn't remember to work on this because I didn't touch my laptop because I was watching Spider-Man and Daisy Ridley movies. Sue me. Anyway, I do hope you enjoyed this, because I had a good time writing it. Thanks for reading!!


	7. chapter seven--what do you mean, ophelia doesn't survive the play

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Todd has some good news for Viola, and he's greeted only with bad news from William Shakespeare, despite the fact that man is dead.

Todd slammed his books down on their usual table at the library, a bright smile on his face. “Viola!” he shouted, not caring how he was far louder than everyone else there. The librarian shushed him, but he ignored her (other than shooting a little glare at her for good measure). “Viola!” he cried again before realizing that, though there were countless other students studying in the library, none of them were his English tutor. He’d just seen her in English, but he’d somehow already managed to lose track of her, even though she was right behind him when they walked out of the classroom. He sank into his seat, cheeks and ears burning red with shame, and took his copy of _Hamlet_ out, flipping to the beginning of the fifth act and trying to make sense of the words on the page.

He’d gotten about a page in before the library door swung open and Viola walked in, looking more exhausted than he’d seen her in ages. She dropped her bags and collapsed into the chair across from Todd, burying her head in her hands with a long sigh. “If Ms. Coyle flags me down one more time when I’m just trying to get here, I think I’m going to lose my _mind_ ,” she said, her voice slightly muffled.

“Tryin’ to get you to run for student council president again?” Todd asked, turning a page in his book even though he hadn’t absorbed anything written there without looking at Viola. She made a little noise of agreement in the back of her throat. “Ain’t you told her you don’t wanna be on the council?” Viola held up three fingers, still not looking up. “Three times? You’d think she’d have gotten the message by now.” He cleared his throat, swallowing the tiny wave of anxiety that threatened to bubble into a tsunami. “I got somethin’ that might make you feel better, though.”

At this, Viola perked up a little. “Anything would be appreciated,” she said. “As long as it has nothing to do with student government or Nicola Coyle.”

“What about if I told you I got an 82 on my English essay?” Todd crept around the words, worrying she may not be as impressed with his grade as he was. Still, he couldn’t help the pride in his voice as he slid the crinkled pieces of notebook paper toward her, complete with his grade written in red ink and circled in the top margin. She sat up as soon as he spoke, taking in what he’d just said. She looked at him with shock written on her face, reading the little note Mr. Tench had written on the top of the page next to his grade.

“‘Mr. Hewitt, I am incredibly impressed with your writing. Your explanation of why Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exemplify the qualities outlined in the prompt is well-thought out and even more well-written. We may make an English student out of you yet. Keep up the good work! P.S. Congratulations on spelling 90% of the words you used correctly.’” Viola’s gaze flickered between Todd and the essay, a little smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “Do you know how amazing this is?” she asked, unable to hide how impressed she was. Todd nodded. “You went from failing to getting Bs. In the span of three and a half weeks.”

“It’s just one assignment,” Todd said, not meeting her eyes and hoping she didn’t see the flush of pink on his cheeks. “Ain’t too big of a deal, but I was kinda shocked and I figured you’d want to know, since it’s because of you I’m doin’ alright in English for the first time.”

“The first of _many_ assignments,” Viola countered. “And you haven’t even finished the play yet! I bet, once you finish your final essay for _Hamlet_ and take the test, you’ll have a B in the class. Maybe even an A. I think Mr. Tench is right. You are going to become a true English student by the end of this.”

He frowned to conceal the smile trying to appear at her compliment. “I ain’t so sure about that.” He scuffed his feet against the carpeted floor, adjusting how he was sitting so he was crushing his hands beneath his legs so he didn’t fidget too badly as he continued, “Did knowin’ that make you feel better about you-know-who, though?”

“Much better,” Viola said. “Thank you.” Todd dipped his head in place of a ‘you’re welcome.’ “So, we should probably get started, huh? Which part of the play are you at?”

“I was gonna go ahead and read the first scene of Act Five, but you got here right as I got started. So I’m still there.”

“Gotcha. Do you want me to leave you alone for a little while so you can finish reading it, or would you rather us read it together and discuss it?” Todd shrugged. “That’s not helpful, you know.”

They sat in silence for a moment before Todd finally said, “I think it would be better for me if we discussed it. That way I know if I’m readin’ this all wrong, ‘cause I still can’t quite make sense of some of these words.” He paused, then added, “But maybe I should read the first page and then we can talk about it so we ain’t tryin’ to figure out who’s gonna read what part or whatever.” Halfway through what Todd was saying, Viola pulled out her school laptop, typing furiously for a second before hitting the enter key and leaning back in her chair while she waited for the webpage to load. One of Todd’s eyebrows quirked up. “What are you doin’ now?”

“If we’re going to do page by page discussions, we should probably make sure that what we’re reading defines a page the same way,” she said. Noting Todd’s visible confusion, she continued, “You know, because of book size and all that. Page 50 in your copy could be page 55 in mine, and then we’d just be confused.” She clicked around on her laptop a few times. “So I’ve figured out a solution. Come over here for a second.” Todd got to his feet and took a place behind Viola, leaning forward so their heads were right next to each other and pretending he didn’t feel his heart start kicking against his ribcage at the thought of being so close to her. “SparkNotes has all Shakespeare’s plays on their website, _and_ they’ve got a modern English translation right next to the original text so you know what the Bard is trying to communicate.”

Todd’s eyes went wide. “And this is just free online?” he asked, full of disbelief.

“I mean, there are published copies in print form, but for the most part, yeah.”

“Could you send me the link to that?”

Viola bit her lip, and Todd could almost see the ideas churning in her mind. After a moment’s hesitation, she said, “Why don’t you just sit here and share with me? That way there’s really no confusion about where we are, and you can point out what’s giving you trouble rather than having to figure out what line number it is.” 

Todd could hardly hide his elation as he said, “Yeah. That sounds good,” and pulled a chair up next to her, so close if one of them moved too far to one side their legs would brush against each other’s. He leaned in to start reading, and after the first line, he already had a question. “Whose grave are they diggin’?”

“Use context clues.” Viola pointed at the screen, leaning so close to him their heads were nearly touching. Todd could hardly focus on her words as she said, “What pronoun is used here?”

“She?”

“And who’s the only female character in this play?”

“Gertrude?” Todd said, turning his head so he was looking at her. “But I looked ahead, and it said she has lines in this scene. She ain’t dead yet!”

Viola looked as if she was about to contradict him, with one finger held up to silence him and her mouth hanging open but dropped her hand and closed her mouth as she realized he had a point. Gertrude was not in fact dead. “Right. There are multiple women in this one.” She cleared her throat and started again. “Who’s the _other_ female character in this play? One widely regarded as a great tragedy of love and who has already, you know, died by this point?”

“Ophelia!” Todd said a bit louder than necessary. Once again, the librarian glared at him, but since his back was to her, he didn’t notice. His brows knit together. “But Hamlet doesn’t know she’s dead, does he? ‘Cause he was in England trying to avoid gettin’ killed by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.”

“And now you’re beginning to see where the problems come in.” 

They spent the rest of their session finishing reading the scene. When they were done, Todd leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “I don’t get why Ophelia had to die,” he said, more than a little upset. “She was a good character and Shakespeare just decided that she was gonna die to make the problems Hamlet and Laertes were havin’ worse. There ain’t a real reason for it.”

Viola laughed. “I’m beginning to think you’ve been around me too much. But hey, at least you’ll have something to write an essay about. I bet Mr. Tench would be impressed by how much you have to say about Ophelia.”

Todd shot her a mournful look. “Ain’t there any version of this effing play where she gets to be her own girl?”

“I mean, there’s a movie from a couple years ago that reimagines _Hamlet_ from Ophelia’s perspective, if that’s of any interest to you.”

Todd lit up. “Do you know where I can watch it?”

Viola started speaking before she had time to think about what she was about to say. “I’ve got it on DVD at my house. Do you want to come over sometime and watch it?” The words spilled out like coffee staining an expensive white rug, taking up more space in the room than either of them had ever known a simple request had the ability to do. “It’s okay if you don’t, I just thought maybe you’d—”

“That sounds great!” Todd said with a little too much enthusiasm. “Are you doing anything this weekend?”

Viola pulled out her phone and checked her calendar. “I don’t think so. We could go get lunch on Saturday and then go back to my place and watch the movie, if your parents are okay with that.”

“They should be. Cillian’s always tellin’ me I’ve gotta get out of the house more often. He’ll be excited I’m going…to a girl’s house to watch a movie.” The word ‘date’ almost escaped his lips before he had the chance to stop it, but he managed to steer the sentence in a different direction. After all, he wasn’t quite sure if Viola was as thrilled by his presence as he was by hers, and he didn’t want to be uninvited to her house over a misspoken word.

Viola nodded. “Alright. Just let me know what time and place is best for you, and I’ll meet you there. Then, you can follow me back to my house—or ride with me, I’m not sure if you have a car or not. Does all that sound good?”

Sound good? The idea of spending a whole afternoon with Viola Eade made everything in Todd’s world seem a little bit brighter, like there were stars in the light fixtures in place of lightbulbs. There was nothing that sounded better than that. But, he had to keep his cool, so he just said, “Yeah. I’ll see you on Saturday.”

“Okay! I’ll see you then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i had such a good time writing this chapter, and i hope you enjoyed reading it!


	8. chapter eight--maybe a little bit of a date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Todd goes to Viola's house to watch a movie.

Viola pulled into a parking spot at what may as well have been the only restaurant in Prentisstown, and it was a bit of a marvel that it was even still open, since there was nobody else in the parking lot—which meant there was no sign of Todd. Before she could think too much about it, she grabbed her phone out of her purse and sent him a quick message asking where he was. It chimed with a response almost immediately. _About five minutes out_. She shot back with _i sure hope you’re not driving right now_ , followed by a goofy emoji she thought she was going to have to spend all five minutes trying to find.

Todd didn’t reply, so she sat a little straighter in the driver’s seat of her car so she could see her reflection in the rearview mirror. She pushed her sunglasses up to the top of her head, then, disliking how they pushed her hair around, took them off entirely and put them in her purse. Viola combed her fingers through her hair, trying to flatten the strands at the top that refused to lie flat. It didn’t work, and with a huff, she gave up, instead blinking with her finger pressed to her eyelashes in an attempt to get them to curl a little more. Once again, it didn’t work, and she found herself scrambling for a napkin to get the mascara off her pointer finger.

Right as she finally found a napkin in her glovebox, a huge truck that was probably white underneath the layers of grime veered into the parking lot. The driver didn’t even bother parking, just stopped in the middle of the lot. The passenger door opened, and out hopped Todd, wearing a V-neck t-shirt that’d obviously been freshly ironed and cowboy boots without a trace of dirt on them. He waved to the driver, and just as soon as the truck had arrived, it was gone again, tearing off in the direction it came. Todd made his way to the front door, taking a seat in one of the rocking chairs on the porch and simply staring out into space. Viola envied him. He didn’t have to worry about how he looked.

Little did she know, he’d spent the entire morning running outfits by Ben and learning to use an iron so he could look the best he could for Viola.

Viola assessed her own outfit, taking in the denim skirt, white blouse, and bandana she’d used as a sort of headband. Had she overdressed? It was too late to go home and change, so it wasn’t like she could do anything if she had. With a shrug, she opened her car door and stepped out, relishing in the sound of her wedges on the asphalt. She pretended not to notice how Todd perked up at the sight of her climbing out of her car, a grin tugging at the corners of his lips. She waved, locked her car, and walked over to him, taking a seat in the rocking chair next to him.

Todd turned so he was looking at her. “You look real nice,” he said, scratching the back of his neck, which was turning red.

Viola smiled, noticing how his hair was a little bit wet and she could still see the tracks of the comb in it. “So do you,” she said, ignoring the blush on her cheeks. “New shirt?”

“Nah. I just ain’t worn it to school yet.” He gestured at her. “New skirt?”

She shook her head. “I just can’t wear it to school. Dress code and all that. It’s an inch too short.”

Todd frowned. “It ain’t even that short!” he said, getting a bit enraged on Viola’s behalf.

“Trust me, I know.” She smoothed the material down a little bit, then cleared her throat, signaling an end to the conversation. “Do you want to go inside?”

Todd got to his feet. “Yeah. Sounds good.” He opened the restaurant door for her, earning him a shy smile and a quiet thanks as she ducked under his arm, and found himself face to face with the maitre’d, who happened to be the very last person either of them wanted to see that day.

Davy. Prentiss. 

“Well, if it ain’t Todd Hewitt!” Davy shouted, drawing the attention of the other patrons. A few whispered to their companion, but the majority just went back to their meals. Todd pretended it didn’t bother him. “Didn’t know you could afford to eat here.”

Viola went pale, wringing her hands together as her gaze darted from Todd to Davy and back again, noting how his smile twisted to a clenched jaw the minute he saw him. She rested her hand on his arm, a silent plea for him to try to be civil. He didn’t seem to get the memo, jerking his head back and saying, “Your pa get you this job?”

Without hesitating, Davy fired back with, “Your pa get you that girl right there?” He looked Viola up and down. She adjusted the hem of her skirt, suddenly aware of why she wasn’t allowed to wear it to school, and moved her hand back to her side, trying to prevent herself from becoming something else for Davy to tease Todd about. It was too late. He’d already noticed. Davy scoffed. “He must’ve. She’s too pretty to go for someone like you.” He fixed his gaze on Viola. “Hey, girl!” She drew closer to Todd, hating how Davy looked at her like she was a city to be conquered. “You wanna know what it’s like to go out with a real man?”

She was searching for a biting response when Todd said, his voice low and threatening, “Viola.” She turned toward him, worrying he was upset with her. But he wasn’t even looking at her. “Her name’s Viola. A real man would’ve asked instead of just calling her ‘girl.’”

Davy’s nostrils flared, and for a second Viola feared he was going to leap across the maitre’d station and start a fight right there. Instead, he just said, “And what would you know about being a real man?”

Todd bristled, and in an act of pure instinct, Viola grabbed his hand. He froze. “Todd, no,” she said, searching his face for any sign he was listening to her. His anger melted away when he met her eyes, as did the tension in his shoulders. “This isn’t worth fighting over, okay? Let’s just go get pizza and take it back home or something.”

Todd nodded, giving Viola’s hand a little squeeze for good measure. “That sounds good. I’ll text Cillian and let him know so he doesn’t see a funny charge on my card and think it got stolen or somethin’ like that. You ready to go?” Viola nodded, and they headed back out of the restaurant, followed by a string of shouts from Davy that neither of them were really listening to.

“I can get it,” Viola said as she walked through the door Todd opened for her. “It’s really no big deal. I’ve already got a rewards account, and—”

“So do we,” Todd countered. Viola huffed. “And I was gonna get your food anyway, so this is the least I can do since I screwed up lunch at the restaurant for us.”

“You didn’t screw it up.” She paused for a moment while Todd went around the car and got in. “Davy antagonized you. He didn’t have to say anything, and he did.”

“I didn’t have to respond, though.” Todd scuffed his feet on the floorboard of the car.

Viola shifted the car into reverse, looking over her shoulder at the empty parking lot to make sure she wouldn’t hit anything. “Sure you did. He was being a jerk, and he didn’t need to get away with it. You gonna order that pizza or what?”

Todd took out his phone, swiping until he found the app for the local pizza chain. “A real man would’ve just taken it,” he muttered. “What do you want on your pizza?”

The car shuddered as they came to a stop in the middle of the parking lot, thankful there was nobody else there. The look on her face pinned him in place, even if her eyes were covered with sunglasses. “I don’t _ever_ want to hear you say that again, Todd. You’re twice the man Davy Prentiss is ever going to be, and he doesn’t have any right to make you feel bad, okay?” Her tone reminded him of that first tutoring session when she fussed at him for not reading, and he didn’t know what to do other than nod. “Good.” She shifted into drive and headed toward the road. “Oh, and just cheese is good.” She took her hand off the steering wheel for a second to hand Todd her phone. “Find some good music, will you?”

Todd flipped through her Spotify playlists. He wrinkled his nose. “Why do you have a playlist with just a bunch of movie music on it?” he asked. “Ain’t it boring?”

“You’d be surprised how much more I get done when I don’t have words to sing along to,” she said. “And how much the song can take you back into the movie.”

“Viola, I don’t understand half these words.”

She laughed, remembering she’d named all her playlists with unique words she’d taken a liking to. “Okay, so ‘apricity’ is songs for a sunny day like today, and ‘serein’ is for rainy days. I don’t know how I sort songs into those playlists, but it makes sense. ‘Hiraeth’ is homesickness songs, and like the other two, that’s just a feeling. That is, however, different from ‘wanderlust,’ which is full of songs that make me want to travel somewhere, though there is some overlap between the songs. Then there’s ‘sarang,’ which is full of love songs. ‘Saudade’ is my sad playlist, and I don’t recommend playing it unless you want to see me cry.” For a second, Todd considered pressing play on it right then, just to see how she reacted. “‘Mellifluous’ is the movie scores, but I think you knew that already. Oh, and then there’s ‘vibes’ which is just everything I like thrown together.”

Todd’s head spun. “Sometimes I don’t think you’re too much smarter than me and then you go and do things like this,” he said. “Is ‘apricity’ any good?”

Viola shrugged. “I mean, I think so, but it’s my music, so I think I’m a little biased. The mood’s right for it, though.” Todd hit the shuffle play button. A soft guitar melody drifted through the car, replaced by the dulcet tones of Zayn Malik’s voice. Viola cringed. “You weren’t supposed to know about this yet.”

Todd cracked a smile. “You listen to One Direction?” He flipped through the rest of the songs on the playlist. His eyes went wide. “A lot, apparently.”

She bit her lip. “Yeah. I hope you like them, because I think that one’s 90% One Direction.”

Todd looked at her out of the corner of his eye, noticing how the sun formed a little halo around her head and trying to figure out the best way to tell her that he’d loathed One Direction for as long as he could remember. Then, he heard it. A tiny voice, barely more than a whisper, singing along with the lyrics on the radio. His breath caught in his chest as he realized it was _Viola’s_ voice.

And it was beautiful.

Right then, he decided that for as long as he had to, he would pretend to enjoy One Direction’s music if it meant he would get to hear Viola sing, her smile evident in her voice. It also occurred to him that he might be in a little bit of trouble, as far as feelings went, if he was willing to listen to British boy bands for the chance of hearing her sing. He pushed that thought away, assuring himself there was no way he had a crush on his English tutor, even if most of him knew that was a lie.

A few minutes later, they pulled into the pizza place’s parking lot. Viola moved to open her door, but before she could even get her fingers wrapped around the handle, Todd was out of the car and halfway to the door. Viola huffed and rolled her eyes.

“Showoff,” she muttered as he pulled the door back open.

“ _Gentleman_ ,” he corrected, earning him another eye roll from Viola.

Todd lost count of the amount of One Direction songs that came on before they arrived at Viola’s house, but he also found himself lost in Viola’s singing, so it made everything a little less painful. She pulled into the driveway of a quaint little house in a neighborhood on the edge of town, nestled between two much grander houses. Three rocking chairs sat on the porch; two were occupied by a couple holding hands and rocking in sync.

Viola jumped out of the car and crossed in front of it to meet Todd, grabbing his hand as if by instinct. The two people on the porch stood up, and Todd and Viola walked toward them.

Before Viola could say anything, her mother grabbed Todd’s free hand. “Oh, you must be Todd Hewitt!” she said, grinning like a schoolgirl. A matching blush crept up Todd and Viola’s cheeks. “Vi’s told us all about you.”

“ _Mom_ ,” Viola said, her blush deepening.

Todd gave her a sly look, raising one eyebrow. “All about me, huh?” Viola rammed into him, and he nearly fell, taking her with him since their hands were still laced together. Todd cleared his throat, his voice growing more formal as he said, “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Eade.”

“Same to you, Todd,” Viola’s father said. He looked at his wife. “Respectful boy. I like him.”

They looked to be on the verge of a conversation, so Viola pushed through them, leading Todd into the kitchen. “Plates are in that cabinet over there,” she said, pointing vaguely up and to the right. He didn’t have the heart to ask her to be more specific, so he opened every cabinet until he found the plates, grabbing two. He turned back around to see her kneeling on the countertop, taking small glasses off the top shelf. She set two down next to her, ducked as she closed the door, and hopped back down, one cup in each hand.

“You know I could’ve gotten those for you,” Todd said, not bothering to hide his grin.

“Got too worried you wouldn’t be able to find them, since you struggled to figure out where the plates were.” Viola pressed one cup into the water dispenser in the door of the fridge, relishing in the sound of the ice clinking against the glass. “There’s water right here, and I think there’s some tea and a couple of sodas in the fridge, if you want one of those.” She jerked her head toward the pizza box. “Go ahead and get your food.”

He still hung back, remembering how Ben and Cillian always taught him to let ladies go first, no matter what he was doing. Besides, he figured that if he went ahead and got his food, he was probably going to eat the entire pizza and he’d be better off at least letting Viola get a little bit. Once Viola had finally gotten her food, he grabbed five pieces of pizza. She shot him a look that bordered on amazement. “What? I’m hungry,” he said, taking a giant bite to emphasize his point.

She shook her head and led him down the stairs, where she’d filled the couch with an assortment of pillows and blankets. Todd’s jaw dropped as he noticed the giant screen and the projector hanging from the ceiling, marveling at them like a child who’d never seen the stars before. “I did the same thing when I saw it,” Viola said. “The old owners didn’t want to pack it, so they just left it here for us. Crazy, right?” She gestured to the couch. “Go ahead and take a seat. I’ll get everything set up.”

She put her plate on the coffee table in front of the couch and headed to the shelf in the corner that was stacked top to bottom with DVDs. He could hear her quietly reciting the alphabet to herself as her finger ran along the edges of the cases, stopping when she reached “O” and repeating it over and over. “ _One Day_ … _Only Yesterday…Onward…Ophelia!_ ” She pulled it from the shelf, brandishing the navy case like a trophy. With a click, she opened it and put the DVD in the DVD player. Then, she climbed on the coffee table, careful not to step on her food, and turned on the projector, which whirred to life. Todd stifled a laugh. She grinned. “Short girls gotta do what they gotta do.” With that, she grabbed her food and collapsed next to Todd.

His breath caught in his chest as the previews started, unable to focus on anything but how she was close enough he wouldn’t have to reach to put his arm around her. This time, he didn’t bother trying to bury the feelings. Viola’s eyes flickered toward him just long enough for him to know she had an idea of what he was thinking. 

Viola shifted so she was sitting even closer to him than before, her heart pounding so hard she could feel it in her temples. She tried to focus her attention on the movie, but she’d seen the previews so many times she knew them by heart, and Todd Hewitt was just so much more interesting. Her mind betrayed her, her eyes landing on Todd just long enough for her to know he had an idea of what she was thinking.

The opening lines of the movie sounded in the basement, and it occurred to Todd that the leading actress looked and sounded just the slightest bit like Viola, though he’d never tell her that. Both of them tried their hardest to focus on the movie. Todd had an easier time of it, since he’d never seen it before. But for Viola, who’d watched this movie more times than she could count, all she could focus on was her closeness to Todd, how she was close enough that if she tilted her head just so it would land on his shoulder.

About half an hour into the movie, it grew too much for Viola to bear. She took a deep breath, and before she could talk herself out of it, rested her head on Todd’s shoulder. He tensed, and she jolted away, pausing the movie so she could make an apology or an excuse—she hadn’t quite decided which.

“Viola?” he said, his eyes wide and begging for answers.

“I’m sorry, I just—I didn’t realize we were so—” She held her hands up lamely, struggling to find words amongst the storm of feelings threatening to overcome her. “I like you, Todd!” she finally blurted. The words hung in the air like a ghost. “And I kept holding out hope that you liked me too, so I decided to just _do_ something, and I see now that I definitely shouldn’t have, and I understand if you want to leave right—”

“I do.” Todd said.

Viola’s face fell. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she bit her lip, willing herself to keep them back. “Okay. I get it. I’ll walk you out, I guess.” She got to her feet and headed toward the door. Todd didn’t follow her. “Aren’t you coming?” She didn’t even turn around.

Realization hit Todd like a ton of bricks. He let out a shy, awkward laugh. “Aw, no, Viola, that ain’t what I meant at all.”

She looked over her shoulder, brushing her bangs out of her face. “It isn’t?”

“When you said you were holding out hope that I liked you too. I do.”

“Oh.” She turned the rest of the way, clasping her hands together and bouncing on the balls of her feet. “You don’t want to leave?”

“That’s the last thing I want.” He patted the cushion next to him. It took all Viola had not to bound over there like an excited puppy offered her favorite toy. She curled up next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. His arm wrapped around her, pulling her so close their shadows melted together on the wall behind them. And they stayed there for the length of the movie and even a little afterward, perfectly content just being together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops. i hope you enjoyed this though!

**Author's Note:**

> okay so the title comes from the knife of never letting go. also, this is a huge mess. but i'm enjoying myself a lot more than i should be while i write this, so i'm going to keep going. i hope y'all enjoy reading it as much as i'm enjoying writing it!


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